That is correct and that's what I'm trying to make work.
Haywood Gets a New Receiver
- Thread starter Haywood
- Start date
That is correct and that's what I'm trying to make work.
Wifi is on and it is connected to the same home network my receiver is on. I believe that Bluetooth is also on, but I will double-check.
The receiver also has Bluetooth and I have a Chromecast Audio on the way, so I'll get things working one way or another.
That is correct. I am trying to play music, so that is fine.
The iPhone and iPad are both connected via WiFi to the same network the receiver is on. Bluetooth is enabled on the iPhone.
Oh, how I HATE HDCP 2.2 and the way it wrecks havoc with my multi-zone system. I'm working with HDFury to try and work out the kinks, but right now it is a mess. The Roku Ultra won't work at all in the kitchen. Even worse, switching to it in the kitchen makes the living room screen go black, because everything shuts down if an HDCP handshake for a source fails in either zone. Nice. The handshakes can take a long time and black out the screens in both zones during the 5-10 second process. Clunky as hell and I cannot understand why anything that happens in Zone 2 should have to impact Zone 1. Very frustrated. Even if I can get the Roku working, I'm looking at losing picture for up to ten seconds every time someone fires up the other TV. I hate this shit.
Yeah, I've never really been into dual zone stuff. It just seems like it's more trouble than it's worth. By the time you work out the control kinks you could have just bought another receiver and been done with it.
I never really cared about the multi-zone aspect. All I am really trying to do is mirror whatever is playing on the main system in the kitchen. The kitchen system is on the wall next to the doorway to the living room. It is only about 8 feet max from the right main speaker in the living room, so playing different things at the same time would be a difficult proposition. The idea here is that we can put something on in the living room and people can be out in the kitchen doing stuff and still follow whatever we are watching. What we have is just a little 32" TV on an articulating mount that also supports the speakers and control module for a Boston Acoustics sub/sat system. The little 8" sub is tucked in next to the bookcase below the TV. It is very compact and perfect for the spot. It would be far easier to just upgrade the television to something that works with HDCP 2.2, but none of the small TVs on the market support anything beyond HDMI 1.4.
After ripping out a bunch of hair and working with tech support, Zone 2 mostly works. The only hiccup is the Blu-Ray player of all things and I am still fiddling with that. We rarely use the Blu-Ray player, so it is not a huge priority for second zone playback. The key thing is that the Roku Ultra will no play 4K on the main system and 1080p in zone 2 without much drama. Bluetooth and Airplay behave a bit strangely with multi-zone, but I am going to eliminate that issue by installing a Chromecast Audio. In short, I am very close to having a rock-solid system that does exactly what I want it to. All that remains is:
1) Finish running the analog audio cables to the kitchen system (mostly done)
2) Install the IR emitters for the wireless remote extender in the kitchen
3) Install and configure the Chromecast, which includes setting up on my wife's phone
4) Program the remotes for the Chromecast
5) Continue to fiddle with the HDFury Linker until everything works correctly (learning about EDID)
On annoying challenge in the kitchen is that obnoxious Boston Acoustics speaker system with its flaky control module. I cannot count on it staying on the same input and the inputs are only addressable in a round-robin fashion. There are also issues related to the fact that the power switch is a toggle. The easiest fix was to simply assign buttons for power and input to all of the activities on the kitchen remote. This is also how I addressed being able to power the kitchen TV down without powering the entire system down. I used the Red, Green and Yellow buttons, which were otherwise unassigned. It is not perfect, but it is easy and the fact that those button mappings are consistent across all activities makes it acceptable for the wife.
1) Finish running the analog audio cables to the kitchen system (mostly done)
2) Install the IR emitters for the wireless remote extender in the kitchen
3) Install and configure the Chromecast, which includes setting up on my wife's phone
4) Program the remotes for the Chromecast
5) Continue to fiddle with the HDFury Linker until everything works correctly (learning about EDID)
On annoying challenge in the kitchen is that obnoxious Boston Acoustics speaker system with its flaky control module. I cannot count on it staying on the same input and the inputs are only addressable in a round-robin fashion. There are also issues related to the fact that the power switch is a toggle. The easiest fix was to simply assign buttons for power and input to all of the activities on the kitchen remote. This is also how I addressed being able to power the kitchen TV down without powering the entire system down. I used the Red, Green and Yellow buttons, which were otherwise unassigned. It is not perfect, but it is easy and the fact that those button mappings are consistent across all activities makes it acceptable for the wife.
MakeMineVinyl
Well-Known Member
The trouble I have with the configuration of components like these is that they work fine until they "forget" their configurations for no obvious reason.
Oh, I have seen that happen. That is when I quit using them and they tend to become single purpose again. As mentioned earlier, I would almost just rather have two independent systems for that reason alone.
MakeMineVinyl
Well-Known Member
Kind of makes you wonder how on Earth completely driverless cars are ever going to be able to work reliably!
D
Deleted member 133
Guest
I assume you are connecting the Blu-ray player via standard RCA stereo cables because otherwise ... you be fucked. At least that's my experience with Zone 2 (or 3 or...) for any of my devices. Analogue only. Won't hear (or see) anything that's sent via HDMI. It's why I need to have an old(er) Blu-ray player hooked up in my family room HT in order to stream music from my server for any of the other Zones.
In putting in place all of its copy protection, the industry really made it tough to do anything but straightforward operations (and even then some not so well.) Yet anyone can torrent anything that they want and play it regardless. So they didn't actually protect anything - and just managed to piss off its customers.
Jeff
I can write the configuration off to a file and store it on my network. If the thing ever flakes out, I can just plug it into my laptop and restore the configuration. I've actually spent far more time setting up the Harmony remotes, but the configuration for those is stored in the cloud. Next time I might shell out the extra for the professional series, because they really neutered the consumer models to prevent people from doing dumb things. I was able to work it all out, but it took a lot of time. The good news is that I now have two rock solid remote controls with the one in the kitchen assigned exclusively to that zone.
A separate system would have been as easy as plugging a Roku stick into the kitchen TV. The reason I did not do that is that I wanted to be able to mirror the main system and there is currently no other way to do that.
That is why I bought a new receiver that is HDCP 2.2 compatible on all inputs and outputs. If the kitchen TV were HDCP 2.2 compliant, everything would work out of the box with no drama. The problem is that nobody makes small 4K televisions or even 4K "compatible" televisions that accept HDMI 2.0a/HDCP 2.2, but only display 1080p. The only option I had was to find something that could convert both the resolution and the HDCP standard on route to the kitchen TV. Configuring that device is where I ran into trouble. I'm pretty sure I can fix this latest wrinkle, but given that I almost never use disc media, it is not a huge priority. Whenever I buy Blu-Rays, I rip them to my NAS.
You can, and that is awesome, but how does the average joe handle the situation? I really appreciate the fact that you have a viable option for if/when the damn thing crashes, but gheez man you have been having trouble with it and your pretty damn tech savvy.
The learning curve has been huge and I've been playing with this stuff for decades. A professional installer would have had all this configured and running in a fraction of the time, but only because they work with these things all day. It took a day to get the main system running like a top and a week of tinkering to get zone two almost working correctly. Complete. Fucking. Nightmare.
There is no way that an "average" person could do this. Not a chance in hell. You have to be savvy enough to download and install multiple pieces of software and manually extract and install a driver .dll for one of them. You have to be willing to experiment with poorly documented configuration software and do a lot of back and forth with tech support in China, which means 24 hour turn-around time for answers. You have to be willing to dive in and figure out what the hell EDID is and how to find the right EDID metadata for your display. You've got to be able to figure out creative workarounds for limitations with the Harmony remote systems. That isn't even getting into the labyrinthine configuration on the receiver. OMFG. Endless.
It should be cool when I'm done though. I'm just glad I had this week off before starting the new job.
You're commitment to mirroring entertainment is commendable!!
I'm basically just too stubborn to quit. I paid good money for this gear and I WILL make it work! I'm also learning a lot of useful stuff to add to the repertoire. I do not have a house where I can do a customer theater room, so I'm spending my time on things like media servers, media players, multi-room systems, home automation and so on. By the time I buy my own house, I will know everything needed to make it absolutely sick.